The VFW Are Not Buying This Strawman Speech

And man, Bush is strawmanning it up big time. He's trying to give the Veterans of Foreign Wars a history lesson about Japan and WWII. How America was attacked, thousands died, suicide attackers were used against us to scare us. We went after their totalitarian government, and democracy grew and flourished.

The highly fictional aspect of this part of the speech is his insistence that the experts back then said we shouldn't waste our time going after Japan. That democracy would never take hold and that we'd be wrong to retaliate.

Excuse me? "The experts"? Can you name just one of these "experts," Mr. Bush? Needless to say, he didn't. Instead, he just kept rewriting history about America's involvement in WWII.

Here's the problem. Most of the people in that room know the truth. They know America overwhelmingly supported the Pacific campaign. As a result, every single applause line that Bush shouted out was met with tepid applause, at best. At worst, there were several seconds of painful silence before a smattering broke out.

Moreover, they and every American with half a brain cannot possibly wrap the argument for war against Japan around the war against Iraq. JAPAN ATTACKED US. IRAQ DID NOT. But lo and behold, Bush is once again trying to push the idea that Iraq and 9/11 are intertwined.

Now he's trying to compare the end of the Vietnam War to his Iraq adventure, as he did with the Korean War.

Spectacularly, he made this amazing comparison:

"As we saw on September the 11th, a terrorist safe haven on the other side of the world can bring death and destruction to the streets of our own cities. And like in Vietnam, if we were to withdraw before the job was done, this enemy would follow us home. And that is why for the security of the United States of America, we must defeat them overseas so we do not face them in the United States of America."

I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt and think maybe - just maybe - he meant to say "UNLIKE in Vietnam..." This is where TiVo comes in. I activated the closed captioning knowing the CC transcribers get a text of the speech beforehand, rewound, and watched again.

He did indeed say what was written. "And like in Vietnam..."

UPDATE: The White House transcript has it as "Unlike."

Again - polite applause. No standing ovation on his strongest argument. You might be able to fool the populace who depends on Rush Limbaugh for all their news, but you can't fool the vets anymore - especially with the problems ALL of them are facing in trying to get their much-deserved benefits and healthcare.

And all the lying and rewriting of history just digs you deeper. You've lost the vets, Mr. Bush. They cannot possibly believe you anymore, especially after this shameless speech concocted at the expense of their fallen comrades.

UPDATE: *sigh* And of course, MSNBC takes three steps backwards. After a half hour of Bush's fairy tale, the instant expert analysis comes from Joe Watkins - Republican Strategist - explaining why the speech was so genius. Another grim reminder that despite Keith Olbermann, MSNBC is still owned by General Electric.

Liberal media bias, my ass.

Comments

[dennis in West Chazy]

I mistakenly heard the first 60 seconds of Rush limpdick and he was crowing that W was on fire at the VFW speech. He spelled it out for his listeners that VFW stands for Veterans of Foreign Wars, the kind of people that the liberal media thinks are murderers and baby killers. Hey, I'm a liberal VFW and what is is again that prohibits us (me) from kicking kicking that fat, lying, chickenhawk, fuck's ass all over the street? Oh yeah, the law. Can't we make him a special case for an ass kicking?

[David Aquarius]

What a crock of crap! Bush talking about Vietnam! Mr. Coward of the Texas Air National Guard thinks he was keeping 'Murica safe from the Commie Horde while getting drunk in Alabama roadhouses. But his laundry bill for skivvies went up whenever the possibility of him being deployed came around. He has no business standing in front of real heroes.

MSNBC is just another tool of the Right. Keith is doing his best, but it's going to take a much bigger news story to shake the rafters there:

2009 - Democratic Party in the White House. FCC gets another Democratic voice to stand with Adelstein and Copps, sending mouth-breather for the Right, Kevin Martin to the cheap seats.

Then, if the Gods are truly just, we can put our 'Media' house in order. Bring ownership back down to 25 percent, kick News Corp and Sinclair in the balls by making them (and a few others) sell broadcast and newspaper assets in cities all over the country. Then, before the paint is dry on that, reinstitute a new Fairness Doctrine and kick Faux News one more time in the jimmies.

Just for kicks!

[C.P.T.L.]

If the President and Vice president had been impeached then Harry Reid's response:

"President Bush's attempt to compare the war in Iraq to past military conflicts in East Asia ignores the fundamental difference between the two... Our nation was misled by the Bush administration in an effort to gain support for the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses, leading to one of the worst foreign policy blunders in our history."

would have been said tens of thousands of times in the past eight months by tens of thousands of Americans. It would be common knowledge. Reid's response wouldn't be a whisper in the wind, a contrary mumble.

Bush wouldn't even have said it because the troops situation would have been re-evaluated. Democrats would have the initiative.

Even if it had been decided that the best thing to do was to keep the troops in Iraq - even with the same 'mission' - it would be a 'clean up Bush's f'n mess' mission, not a bunch of disjointed anti-war blah, blah, blah vs Bush's fight for our security.

[dennis in West Chazy]

What I've been thinking, is that this story of an incompetent president, including all the cronies that showed up on time to spill our country's guts in the streets and take us for all we had, is so fucking old. Do we have to keep arguing that we're right on the money and these fuckers are liars, cheats and thieves, year after fucking year? Reading the blogs, like I've been doing for the last six years, registering my outrage when it bubbles up, committing myself to political, environmental and social improvement seems more and more like spinning my wheels and not accomplishing anything. Is anyone getting any real satisfaction doing what we do? These pricks get to keep the control, they say this outrageous lying shit in front of respectable (VFW) audiences and we are supposed to be mollified or satisfied that there was only polite applause and not rousing ovations? Rush has a national audience and he totally distorts the perceptions of the event. I assume he is consciously lying like crazy and he just gets to do it and gets paid a lot of money to do it. That's so depressing. Why do we have to keep bitching and whining that this corrupt event has to and should stop? Are they that much better than us in this little dog fight for our country? I'm fed up with knowing what a strawman is or what stonewalling is and tired of explaining to people the advantages of a progressive society over a corrupt one posing as a conservative one. Hell, what am I saying? the dark ages lasted for 450 years. There's a good chance we're fucked, at least in my remaining lifetime. I need a break from recognizing why these people are such assholes and bitching about them. I got to go fix my motorcycle and do some fly fishing. Get my kayak on the water and listen to the crickets and tree frogs. Fuck George Bush and everyone around him.

[DeeLoralei in Memphis]

Oh Sweet Jeebus, Japan too? I hadn't heard about that portion of the speech. Hell when the Senate voted to go to war with Japan it had only 1 nay. Just, just.... gracious. Speechless, I are.

I'd make book his head speechwriter is a Liberty U History Major.

[sergio]

the only lesson here is what drugs does to your brains.